1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to content that is stored or distributed in the context of a social network, and more particularly to content security in a social network.
2. Description of Related Art
The popularity and growth of social network sites and services has increased dramatically over the last few years. Existing social network sites include Facebook, Google+, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flicker, Jaiku, MYUBO, Bebo and the like. Such social networking sites are typically organized around user profiles and/or collections of content.
In many popular social networks, especially profile-focused social networks, activity centers on web pages or social spaces that enable members to communicate and share activities, interests, opinions, status updates, audio/video content, etc. across networks of contacts. Social networking services might also allow members to track certain activities of other members of the social network, collaborate, locate and connect with former acquaintances and colleagues, and establish new connections with other members.
While social networks are usually comprised of individuals, members might also include companies, restaurants, political parties and event profiles that are represented in a like manner to human members (e.g., profile pages accessible by members of a social network). Individual members typically connect to social networking services through existing web-based platforms via a computing device and/or mobile smartphone. Smartphone and games-based mobile social networking services are other rapidly developing areas.
As the use of social networks continues to proliferate, the limitations of current security measures used in the context of social networks become more of a concern. In many cases, individuals belonging to social networks expect, sometimes mistakenly, that reasonably strong security measures have been implemented to prevent unauthorized access to the social network, and to shared content. As new threats to security of social network content continue to emerge, it becomes apparent that current security measures are less than perfect.